


Fallen

by CometEclipse



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, F/M, Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-03
Packaged: 2018-04-29 18:21:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5137910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CometEclipse/pseuds/CometEclipse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Inquisitor defeats Corypheus, but doesn't make it herself.</p>
<p>A Flash Writing Challenge</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fallen

**Author's Note:**

> Written in (a little over) five minutes for the Flash Writing Challenge

They had done it. Somehow, they had defeated Corypheus. Cullen couldn’t stop beaming, pride filling him as their troops cheered, everyone waiting excitedly for the Inquisitor and her fellow heroes to return. He paced anxiously, adrenaline rushing through him, waiting.

A cry rose from the gates, and Cullen froze, eyes expectant on the parting crowds. The renewed enthusiasm swept through, leading away from the space, before the cries turned to pain instead of joy.

As soon as he saw Cassandra’s faze, his heart froze. “No,” he whispered. And somehow he was down the stairs, racing as fast as he could. The Seeker's hands bore the ends of a stretcher, one that had a body on it. It was draped in white linen, but blood had turned it mottled, a gruesome testimony. People tried to speak to him, hold him back, but he shoved them away, ignored them.

He collapsed to his knees at her side, and she was lowered to him. With wildly shaking hands, he gently pulled it away from her. It couldn’t be true. It wasn’t her. It was someone else.

Yet, it was. Her eyes closed, skin paler. No longer flushed with life, no longer gazing at him with love. A keening wail burst from him, and he sank to her chest, the sheet now mottled with his tears.

Days passed, and he never left his room. He paced, ranted, cried. She didn’t return. Nothing he did made her return. Until he passed out, an unknown number of days later. His body wouldn’t support it anymore, shutting down on him, forcing him to rest.

“Cullen,” a soft voice spoke, gently roused him. He blinked open his eyes, and stared up into a face he never thought to see again.

Renewed tears rolled from him, joy cracking his broken heart. “How?” he croaked out as he shot up, grabbing her, kissing her lips, her cheeks, her hair.

“A trick, my love. Only a cruel trick.” She laughed and cried with him, kissing him just as reverently. Cullen held hard to her and fell back into bed, dragging her down with him. He was never letting her go.

***

Leliana stood in Cullen’s room, arms crossed over her chest, her heart breaking. A sickly mixture of yellow and green light danced around the room, the air a crackle of magic, sharp and acrid.

Cullen was beaming and weeping, happiness a façade. From his open eyes, the lights shown. She thought she could hear the evil laughter of the demon that possessed him, but she didn’t know for sure.

Closing her eyes and steeling herself, she drew her dagger and struck.

This time she knew she heard the screams, both Cullen’s and the demon’s. But as he gasped out his last breath, Cullen’s eyes turned back to normal. The air cleared, and he gazed up at her. “Thank you,” he breathed out, at peace, then was gone, racing to the Maker’s side and the arms of his Love.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say Hi over at my Tumblr: [CometEclipseWriting!](http://cometeclipsewriting.tumblr.com/)


End file.
